Last week, we featured the URISA 2012 closing keynote by Esri founder Jack Dangermond, where he highlighted how the GIS sector is poised for massive growth, and how collaboration will be a main driver for adoption and innovation.

Mr. Dangermond also discussed how new technologies are going to further extend GIS into the field, which will enable better and faster decision-making.   As a result organizations will be smarter with geospatial technologies serving as the underpinning for strategic growth.

In the second half of his keynote address, Mr. Dangermond dives deeper into how new cloud-based platforms will change how we collaborate and share data, which will also truly become “real time.”  And the near ubiquity of mobile devices and applications will drive more people to become more spatially aware.  The days of cumbersome GIS systems, which could only be used by a handful of trained professionals, are going by the wayside.

A big driver of change in the geospatial sector is advanced data analytics, which will re-imagine the whole premise of GIS.  We will have the software tools and analytics that will allow for pervasive geographic information to be used and accessed at all times.

Be sure to check out part two of Mr. Dangermond’s keynote address at URISA 2012 below.
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